Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich were the two prominent clubs against the creation of the Super League, which quickly disbanded after the top six Premier League clubs exited.
The Super League is still alive, with FC Barcelona, Juventus and Real Madrid driving the project. Former European Club Association and Juventus president Andrea Agnelli did not hesitate to criticize the UEFA monopoly and the lack of competitiveness of specific championships as he took a shot at PSG.
“UEFA’s monopoly must be broken to give clubs a financially stable future,” Agnelli recently told De Telegraaf. “Ajax was crowned Dutch champions in 2019, won the Dutch Cup and Super Cup, and made the Champions League semi-finals. Two months later, the club could have been eliminated in the preliminary round of the new Champions League as per usual. With so much uncertainty, you cannot make sustainable and healthy long-term decisions as a club. This is why I am in favor of a league system in European football, with more financial and sporting opportunities for all clubs.
“We are seeing a tendency for national leagues to become less and less attractive in the current system. There is a lack of emotion; champions are already destined to be. What is the French championship worth with PSG as the eternal champion? Or the Italian, even German and Spanish leagues are in decline. Only the Premier League is growing and growing and is already a glorified Super League. They collect about 4,000 million euros a year, Spain about half, Germany1,500 million and the Netherlands 100 million euros. English dominance also threatens European football. In the Champions League, from the quarter-finals, everything revolves around English clubs and three or four others like Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, PSG and Bayern Munich.”
While PSG does have dominance over Ligue 1 and French football since Qatar Sports Investments took over in 2011, the capital club has recently struggled to win everything domestically.
AS Monaco in 2017 and Lille OSC in 2021 took the Ligue 1 title. Additionally, in the last two years, PSG has crashed out in the Coupe de France knockout stages, so while the dominance is still there, it’s not as strong as it used to be.
It will be interesting to see if these three clubs ever get the Super League project off the ground again or if it remains an idea. As for the ECA, PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi from Agnelli after the attempt to launch the league in April 2021.
